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Recently, playwright and raconteur Kevin Kling was named “artist in residence” for Minnesota Public Radio. It’s a three-year position, for which he’ll develop original live programming, write some commentary for broadcast and host storytelling workshops around the state.

His first commission for MPR is “Of Mirth and Mischief,” a staged musical-theater production, which premiered at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater this past weekend. If you missed the live version, the show will also air a couple of times over Christmas weekend on local public radio stations (one broadcast version will be edited around Kling’s narration and the other, which will air on The Current, will showcase the production’s memorable soundtrack).

For the music in “Mirth,” Kling turned to his longtime friend Steve Kramer — an accordionist and composer best known, in these parts, for his stint with the Wallets, a well-regarded punk polka outfit from the late ‘80s. Kramer enlisted a terrific assortment of acclaimed local musicians to perform, notable among them vocalists Haley Bonar, James Diers (Halloween, Alaska), Aby Wolf and Jennifer Armour and guitarist Jacob Hanson.

The tale at the show’s center is set in the ‘60s: A 4-year-old boy is spending the holiday season in the hospital, away from his family and awaiting surgery. He copes with fear and homesickness by conjuring an imaginative wonderland for the kids in the children’s ward, re-imagining their clinical surroundings as realms filled with magic and legendary heroes, populated by elves, tricksters and fairies, kings, wise fools and wayward princesses. Kling spins yarns that are wry and heartfelt and perceptive, stories as rich and engaging as his fans have come to expect of him — he makes it all look effortless, joyful in the telling.

And Kramer has held his own with Kling’s marvelous stories; the music in the show marries with them beautifully. The songs are a catchy, varied mix — raucous, ethereal or toe-tapping swing — as the narrative demands. You can listen to these tracks now, even download them if you like; it’s worth giving them a measure of studied attention. Kramer and his fellow musicians put together an infectious set of tunes, worth listening to on their own. (I had “Nighty-Night to Brother” running through my head for hours after the show). Bonar, in particular, deserves a mention; she assumes a number of roles and pulls all of them off with aplomb, her vocals by turns seductive and poignant.

Don’t pass up the opportunity to listen to “Of Mirth and Mischief” this weekend — streaming online or in one of its broadcast iterations — it’s just delightful.

While the stage show at the Fitz has come and gone already, you can hear “Of Mirth and Mischief” broadcast this weekend on Minnesota Public Radio, on 91.1 Dec. 23 and on 89.3 The Current, Christmas Day. If you prefer, after they air, you can also stream the show online at www.mpr.org.

Deck the halls with Kling and Kramer

Article by: GRAYDON ROYCE , Star Tribune
Updated: December 17, 2011 – 11:51 AM

Steve Kramer was a few minutes late for an interview last week at the Fitzgerald Theatre, but once he arrived, the former Wallets frontman made his presence immediately known with a nonstop monologue.

Kramer’s giddy and effusive demeanor perfectly fit the reason we were all assembled: to talk about “Mirth and Mischief.” On Friday, Kramer will be onstage playing music for the first time in 19 years. He created “Mirth and Mischief” with Kevin Kling, who quickly became Kramer’s foil as visitors gathered on the Fitzgerald stage.

“I have two comments and a question,” Kramer announced.

What’s the question?

“Is it pronounced poinsett-a or poinsett-ia? I’ve always wondered that. You know what they say about poinsett-ias. They’re the Robert Goulet of the flower world because they’re so ubiquitous at Christmas.”

Kramer then pulled a butterscotch candy from his pocket and unwrapped it.

“These things are the greatest,” he said with the profound conviction of a salesman. “They’re like an entire meal.”

He popped the candy into his mouth and darted around the stage to find something mirthful and mischievous to wear for a photo shoot.

“Kevin, do I look hot with this beard on?” Kramer asked, pulling a long ZZ Top-style wisp of stressed cotton onto his chin.

When a snowman costume was brought forth, Kramer climbed in and held up two twigs through the armholes.

“You take too many pictures,” he said as a photographer snapped away.

Then he went on random shuffle, commenting on the faux cardboard chandeliers hanging onstage, recalling a Woody Allen movie and asking if anyone knew anything about mantis shrimp.

“The thing about these butterscotches is they make you kind of sick,” he said while he and Kling posed in a box seat. “It’s a good thing I have lots of puking space inside this snowman costume.”

As he returned to the stage, Kramer expressed curiosity over the rope holding up the fire curtain.

“Do you have any matches?” he asked Kling.

Conversation interruptus

Finally, the two collaborators sat down to talk about their show.

“Oh, sorry, I’ll be right back,” Kramer said, running off to the lobby.

Kling grinned.

“This is what rehearsal has been like,” he said.

Kling and Kramer have been trying to get together on a project for many years. Kling is a big, expansive personality who tells offbeat stories with amazing heart. Kramer is a larger-than-life personality who presided over an offbeat musical group that worried more about invention than commerce. For whatever reason, they were never able to get something finished.

“We would end up laughing our heads off and nothing ever happened,” Kramer said.

This time, director Peter Rothstein brought his galvanizing presence to the party, and “Mirth and Mischief” took form.

“He’s the string holding the two kites together,” said Kling. “He’s the voice of reason.”

“When you have the two of us out there on the strong side of psychotic-A-D-D, it’s good to have him there,” added Kramer.

Back onstage

For nine years, Kramer fronted the Wallets, who were named one of the 10 best live Minnesota rock acts in a 1997 Star Tribune article. The group was, in the estimation of one critic, the most likely act to “turn any given gig into a grand, transcendent spectacle … and leader Steve Kramer’s wild-eyed sense of showmanship was off the map.”

But the band — which Kramer called “a dictatorship with a big, crabby baby at the center: me” — was tired artistically by 1989.

“It wasn’t really sustainable,” he said. “We weren’t a pop band and we lucked out with ‘Totally Nude’ but for radio airplay, there wasn’t much singing, just me grunting.”

It seems unbelievable that Kramer hasn’t performed publicly in 20 years.

“I know!” he shouted. “But I’m always onstage with my friends. Nothing has really sparked me until this show.”

Kramer did one gig a few years after the Wallets broke up, but otherwise he’s been having a grand time in the music-production business — composing commercial jingles and music for movie trailers.

“That’s helped me get to the point fast,” he said of the tunes he wrote for this show — which are available for free download at the Minnesota Public Radio site. “When Kevin showed me the stories, the songs tumbled out effortlessly.”

So is the show, “Mirth and Mischief,” about anything other than two guys having fun onstage?

“Yes,” said both men quickly.

“The subtitle is ‘The Making of a Fool,’” said Kling, “and the idea is you can survive anything with a sense of humor and a sense of self.”

For Kling and Kramer, the Fool is an important figure, a kind of shaman with wisdom that is often disregarded for being too unconventional.

“A fool has a foot in two worlds,” Kling said. “A clown has two feet in one world. You’d never take counsel from a clown, but you would from a fool.”

Fear factor

Kramer is a little scared about getting back onstage, but the chemistry he shares with Kling makes one wonder if fear will consume them, or they will consume the emotion.

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Ten years ago, Kevin Kling was nearly killed when his vintage motorcycle collided with a car in Minneapolis.

This month, he’s celebrating publication of two new books and the debut of a holiday show he wrote as Minnesota Public Radio’s writer in residence. He’s performing with Interact Theater, and on Monday, he presented a one-man show at the Guthrie.

What a difference a decade has made in the life of this slender, bespectacled Minnesotan with a national reputation as a playwright, humorist, actor, storyteller, author and National Public Radio commentator.

“Every year I get a bit stronger, and a few more brain cells seem to flow back,” Kling says, recalling the aftermath of his life-altering accident on a muggy August day in 2001.

“My memory is getting stronger, but my thoughts are different. Before the accident, they were much more linear. Although people might not believe this, I’ve moved to more poetic thinking.”

Kling’s new books are “Big Little Brother,” his first for children, and “Come and Get It,” the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Winter Book. His holiday show, “Of Mirth and Mischief,” is his first collaboration with his friend Steve Kramer, former leader of the band the Wallets.

Kling’s busy December is astonishing, considering how severely he was injured in the accident. His face was crushed, and the nerves of his right arm were torn from their sockets. Since he was born with a defect that caused his leftarm to be shorter than his right, the accident nearly destroyed his “good” arm.He went through many months of pain, surgeries and physical rehabilitation before he put his life together.

Kling, a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, lives in South Minneapolis with his girlfriend, Mary Ludington, who he credits with “being crucial” to keeping his busy schedule on track.

Kling says Ludington, his family and friends pulled him through those dark days after the accident. So, it’s not surprising that loved ones and hospital experiences provided inspiration for his recent work.

“OF MIRTH AND MISCHIEF”

Kling drew on his childhood stay in a hospital to write this fairy tale about a 4-year-old boy surrounded by doctors, nurses and other children who take on personas of mythical beings.

“Most fairy tales start with a kid being separated from parents and faced with a journey,” Kling explains. “A hospital is an alternative world, like the forest in ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ In my fairy tale, there are challenges and good and evil. This is a Jungian idea, the way fairy tales work. They not only guide us with morals but take us to places we most fear and let us come back safely.”

Kling says Kramer’s music for the show, ranging from bluesy piano to a Latin beat, “is just short of genius.” (A free download of the soundtrack is available at mpr.org/mirth.)

Kramer and Kling have known each other for 30 years, so they were able to “do everything at once,” as Kling puts it. He says this was an inspirational way to work: “The music informed me on a whole section I wouldn’t have written without it.”

“BIG LITTLE BROTHER”

One of the sweetest songs in “Of Mirth and Mischief” is “Nighty Night to Brother.” Kling sang a version of it his brother Steve, who’s a year and a half younger and the inspiration for this story.

“Big Little Brother” is narrated by a boy whose younger sibling grows taller and stronger and is always clutching doughnuts.

“People thought Steve had anger issues, but he really had doughnuts curled in his hand,” Kling says with a laugh.

Steve, who “gets a kick out of the book,” lives in the Maple Grove house where the brothers grew up. Their mother, Dora, lives in northern Wisconsin. Older sister Laura is in Osseo.

“Big Little Brother” ($17.95) is Kling’s third book for Borealis Books. “The Dog Says How” and “Holiday Inn” were big sellers for this division of Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Kling says “the beautiful part” about the new book is the hilarious illustrations by Duluth-based painter/cartoonist Chris Monroe, creator of the popular “Monkey With a Toolbelt” books.

“I was blown away by Chris’ artwork,” Kling says. “My writing relies on subversion, and she is more subversive than I am.”

Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews praised the book, and Kirkus also raved about the iPad app: “Kling and…Monroe combine their talent to create nothing short of a modern children’s classic…at last, an iPad storybook so good it doesn’t need additional narrative options or games or technological wizardry to distract from its flaws. Because there are none.”

“COME AND GET IT”

Kling admits to having a “pinch-myself moment” when the Minnesota Center for Book Arts asked him to write the annual Winter Book. Many of the state’s most distinguished authors have created Winter Books, which are produced by hand, and it’s an honor to receive the commission.

“Come and Get It” is made up of a story and three poems based on a play Kling did three years ago at Open Eye Theatre.

“It’s about a farm kid who is not me but goes through this process,” he says. “When you are born with a disability, you grow from it. But when you have a disability experience later in life, you have to grow toward it. You are still the person you were, but physically you aren’t. You have to transform into this new person.”

Kling describes the artwork by his friend Michael Sommers, Open Eye co-founder, as “bringing the story to a whole new level.”

As Kling looks at his busy month, he says he wouldn’t change a thing: “I’m loving it.”

Mary Ann Grossmann can be reached at 651-228-5574.

What: Kevin Kling doing just about everything

When/where: Kling and Eriq Nelson with Interact Theater performers in “Joy: A Holiday Cabaret”; 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday; Lab Theater, 700 N. First St., Mpls.; $22-$18; 612-333-3377 or thelabtheater.org.

Publication party for Kling’s Minnesota Center for Book Arts Winter Book, “Come and Get It.” 6 p.m. reception, 7:30 p.m. reading Saturday; MCBA, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.; free; mnbookarts.org/winterbook.

Kling and Chris Monroe sign copies of “Big Little Brother”; noon Dec. 17; Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

Kling and Steve Kramer in “Of Mirth and Mischief”; 8 p.m. Dec. 16-17, 2 p.m. Dec. 18; Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; $29-$20; 651-290-1200 or FitzgeraldTheater.org.

Listen Now:

Ghost Story: Coma Gives Injured Biker New Insight October 31, 2007

Prayer: Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit January 10, 2007

The How and Why of Life and Death November 1, 2006

The Great Beaver Rescue Effort February 23, 2005